Chapter 24 – Tantiss
Author's Note: This is the end of this arc! In the next chapter, we return to Tatooine. :)
~ Amina Gila
Rampart regains consciousness slowly, the words of his captor ringing through his mind. He's not stupid. He wasn't planning to resist anyway, not much. He might not know who these people are or what they want with him, but the power of the man who captured him is not to be trifled with.
And besides, the Empire owes him.
He gave everything and followed his orders only to be cast aside as though he meant nothing. He should be Vice Admiral still. He deserves to be. He deserves so much more than that.
If he can't get what he's owed from the Empire, he'll make them hurt for betraying him like this.
He didn't need the extra incentive offered to him by his captor to make him talk. Rampart has a strong sense of self-preservation, and he has no intention of dying to keep the Empire's secrets.
When he wakes up, he's in a different place. He's cuffed, secured well enough that he has no chance of getting away. The stranger who took him is nowhere to be seen. Instead, he's being faced down by clones.
… Familiar clones.
He'd recognize the ARC trooper anywhere, mainly because he was a member of Clone Force 99, and Captain Rex was famous enough for him to be on Rampart's radar. He takes a deep breath and steadies himself. "What do you want?" he asks coolly.
The two clones shift, and the way Rex straightens is meant to be intimidating. Annoying enough, it works.
… A little bit.
"Tell me everything," Rex answers. "I want every single piece of intel you have on the Empire, especially with respect to the shadow clone assassins."
Oh.
Those.
Hemlock's pet project and one which Tarkin fancied, too.
Well, he'd be happy to tell these clones everything they want to know.
"In exchange for my freedom," Rampart replies, "I'll tell you anything."
The Emperor and Tarkin should have thought twice before discarding him. They forgot how much he knows about them and their plans.
**w**
Windu delays a few weeks before he goes back to see the clones again and until the Force nudges him that the time has come. He waits for them to extract the intel from Rampart and undoubtedly formulate a plan of attack. While he intends to aid them if he can – if only to further gain their trust – he also wants to allow them to decide what they wish to do on their own. His plans are bigger than theirs. They plan to rescue their own, but Windu intends to build a movement to take down the Empire.
The garage is a buzz of activity the next time Windu stops by. He observes silently from the shadows as Captain Rex and his ARC trooper study something together. They're going over some sort of plan, and Rampart is there, adding his own input. Windu studies the Imperial for a moment, but no, Rampart is too angry to be a double agent, and Windu has no doubt that the clones have already considered the possibility and taken measures to prevent it.
He's not wearing his helmet this time, either, and like before, it takes the clones almost no time to notice him when he steps forward.
Rex seems relieved to see him. "General," he says, "I wasn't sure if we'd see you again."
"I told you I would be in touch," Windu reminds him.
Rex gives him a look. "The Empire hunts Jedi even more than it does clones, sir."
Yes, as though he needed the reminder, but Rex doesn't know who he is. The clone doesn't know that he is the infamous Predator that even criminal networks whisper about on the planet. Windu has no doubt that Rex has heard the talk, but he does not blame him for not connecting the dots. It's not as though he wants it to be easy for someone to uncover his identity.
"I have been safe," he allows. "What is the status? I am sure Rampart has given you much useful information."
Rex is quick to fill him in, explaining about a base called Tantiss where the Empire is doing a number of high-level experiments that even Rampart does not know about. All he's able to confirm is that they are of personal importance to the Emperor – and therefore to Windu. Tantiss is also the place where clones are being taken, both for experimentation and to be remodeled into assassins.
"The clones are waking up," Rex tells him, his dark eyes grim. "More and more are now turning on the Empire. That's why they're being phased out."
Windu considers that for a moment. It's too little too late in his opinion, but this is something that he can use to his advantage if nothing else. The clones were good soldiers. They would be a formidable force if he had a way of turning them against the Empire. "Tell me what you know about Tantiss."
"The coordinates are not known," Rex answers, "but if we can steal aboard a shuttle leaving one of the orbital stations over Coruscant, we will find it."
"That would be risky," Windu points out. "Your ability to bring a sizable attack force would be limited."
"We're ready," Rex replies steadily. "We can't wait anymore. I'm calling in everyone I know who can aid us." He meets Windu's gaze. "Will you help us, General?"
"I will," Windu says, "and I have resources of my own which will contribute to your cause."
He thinks about the backdoor access he has to Sidious' office. He might not be able to pull the coordinates from there, but he can get them a large ship without too much attention being drawn. And he can call on Gerrera. He has no doubt that Saw is itching to take his rebels and hit a sizable target. If this… Tantiss is important to the Emperor, Windu expects it will be a crippling blow to the Empire.
"Incoming," the ARC calls, and Rex turns toward the door, a breath of relief escaping him. "Some of our reinforcements are coming now. You'll want to be here for this."
Windu follows him curiously, watching as an unremarkable shuttle lowers onto the platform. He doesn't see anything special about it, and a tentative probe with the Force reveals two Force presences inside. He's not sure if he can believe what he's feeling until the ramp lowers. A too-familiar teenage Togruta descends first followed by an equally familiar Kel Dor.
Ahsoka Tano.
She survived.
And –
"Plo," Windu says.
The Kel Dor's gaze snaps to him, and his eyes widen, his shock and relief flaring into the Force. "Mace, you're still alive."
Windu approaches him. "I have not found any other survivors." He has the list which he obtained from the Fallen Jedi's headquarters – it's sizable – but he hasn't known where to begin searching.
"I've been looking, too," Ahsoka says. "I found Master Plo three weeks ago. We've got a few leads but nothing else. Do you– do you know what happened to Anakin?"
The fear in her blue eyes is unmistakable, and Windu is abruptly struck by how much this child has changed. He remembers her when she was a small, skinny, bright-eyed thing, running along at her master's elbow. Her face is harder now. Older. Her eyes are shadowed by grief and exhaustion but that same stubborn determination which she had when a padawan is still there. All of them have their scars.
Windu considers his options. He could tell her the truth, or… he could let it rest. Plo would understand the need to stop Skywalker before he goes further, but Windu knows that Ahsoka is too attached, much like her master. "I have not seen him," he answers.
It's not a lie.
Her face falls for a moment before she lifts her chin. "Then we'll keep searching. If anyone could have survived, Anakin would have."
It's relieving to be with another Jedi, and Windu finds a moment to talk to Plo privately. He tells him how he fought Sidious and nearly died at his hands. Plo – and Ahsoka – undoubtedly noticed the mechno-hand and the kyber shard in his eye, but neither of them commented. Plo, in turn, relates the story of his survival. He sensed his men's intent, and he managed to eject himself from his fighter milliseconds before it exploded. They didn't realize he survived, but he still laid low to avoid drawing attention and eventually smuggled himself off the planet. He wandered for a while until he ran into Ahsoka.
Of all the people Windu thought he might find, a fellow Council member was not one of them. Having Plo at his side feels right, and Windu knows the feeling is too close to attachment, but he – he's been alone for so long. Having another Jedi around makes him feel completed. He didn't realize how empty he felt until now that Plo's here. It's soothing to sense the bright presences on the edge of his mind. Non-Force sensitives don't give the same comfort. They're not bright enough.
But Windu knows better than to allow these feelings to distract him. He contacts Saw to set up the joint operation. This is familiar, too. Though Windu had not wanted the Jedi to participate in the war, he was forced to adapt like everyone else. He learned how to fight, how to lead, and those are the lessons that he now employs as he works with Plo, Ahsoka, and the other clones as they piece together a plan. Ahsoka's astromech, R7, taps into the backdoor access that Windu has and slices a special code into the Imperial network to ensure that they have permanent access. So long as the Empire doesn't realize they have a leak, no number of code changes will prevent Windu from tapping in.
He could even take entire Star Destroyers now if he wanted to.
It might draw too much attention, especially this early on, but it's a possibility for the future.
The Bad Batch come back, too, which Windu had expected, and it turns out that their sniper is being held prisoner at Tantiss. This mission is personal for them. It's personal for all the clones. That's good. It means they're committed and won't back down or have second thoughts. Once, Windu would never have worried about that, but now, after the way the clones turned on the Jedi, he no longer trusts them.
Windu uses his backdoor access to the Imperial network to locate a transport that will be heading to Tantiss. They go to intercept it before it can leave it's starting point and head to Coruscant. Gerrera and his partisans take over the ship, posing as stormtroopers along with some of Captain Rex's clones. The rest will go in as prisoners. They don't know what they'll be walking into or what the facility is like, but Windu expects it to be massive. That means it's important to spread out as quickly as possible so they can infiltrate as much of the facility as they can before the Empire realizes what's happened.
With him, Plo, and Ahsoka as backup, the clones and partisans have a good chance at succeeding.
May the Force be with them all.
**w**
The Empire has stood for months, and Padme is beginning to feel the strain of it. She has worked tirelessly with the allies she knows she can trust to build something of a resistance. In the Senate, she has fought, standing strong for democracy and for the people who still need her. She fights for freedom, and she has worked closely with Riyo Chuchi to fight for the clones. The clones have no voice at all, and though she does not understand what has happened, or why they chose to side with the Empire after everything that happened, they still need her.
Padme has never been in favor of the clone armies. They were bred and born, raised and trained for warfare. She hates it. She hates what the clones stand for, most of all. They are a symbol of the way the Republic has fallen. Purchasing armies? Is this what the Republic was meant to be?
No.
And again no.
Padme spoke out, but no one listened, and here they are today. Maybe no one will ever listen. It is easy to become discouraged, and when she does, she stops early and calls her mother so she can see her children. She looks at them, still so very young and robbed of the parents they should have had, and she feels herself filled with the same righteous rage that has driven her ever since Palpatine declared himself Emperor.
Her twins don't deserve to grow up in a galaxy like this. They don't deserve to never know freedom or justice. She will fight because she must fight and because no one else will fight for her if she doesn't step up first. Riyo shares her rage. She feels it with every fiber of her being as the clones were tossed aside despite her best efforts. Bail and Mon feel the same rage when their every attempt to redirect wartime funding to the millions of refugees and to rebuild the hundreds of destroyed planets is crushed.
The four of them are becoming… something. They started out as colleagues, and then they became friends. Padme doesn't know what they are now, but she is just as ready and willing to let Riyo braid her hair while they watch a stupid holodrama to unwind from a difficult Senate session as she is to let Sabe do the same. She thinks – she thinks they might be something like a family now. They're bound together in a struggle they all share, forever tied by the knowledge that no one will listen to them. No one cares.
Palpatine says to jump, and the Senators ask him how high. They never stop to ask why. They never question why one man should have so much power. They never wonder if this is really what it means to be free, to have justice.
When Riyo asks her – sounding distressed – if she wouldn't mind meeting her in the Underworld, Padme goes without asking questions. And when she gets to the random intersection, Riyo picks her up in an unmarked speeder and takes her further down, to a garage. The place is deserted, but Riyo still seems to know it well, if the way she paces across the floor means anything.
And it's there that Padme learns the truth.
She learns that Riyo has been in contact with Rex – Rex, Anakin's Rex, and is he alive too, where is he? Is he still on Tatooine? – and she has helped him where she can with the clone network he is building. They're not rebels, not quite, because their focus is to help the other clones, but Riyo admits that she expects a rebellion will be the next step. She tells Padme about Master Windu – Windu, thank the Light that there are still more Jedi out there – and about how Master Plo and Ahsoka showed up, and how they went to destroy an Imperial facility that is holding clone prisoners.
Padme waits with her for them to return, and eventually, their restlessness is great enough that she sits Riyo down and begins to braid her hair in an elaborate braid just to keep them both busy. This, Padme thinks, is what it means to be a rebel.
It feels like she ages in a year in the time it takes for the ship to return, and when Padme sees Ahsoka, older than she was the last time they met, there is no force in the galaxy that can stop her from going to the young Togruta and wrapping her in her arms. "Ahsoka," she breathes, squeezing, and Ahsoka makes a strangled sound, hugging her back.
"Senator," she answers, "I'm so glad to see you." She steps back, and Padme can see the tiredness and ash on her face, but she looks happy. Hopeful.
"We have a lot to talk about," Master Windu adds.
It is there, in a random garage in the Coruscant Underworld that the Rebel Alliance is forged. It's an oath between the Senators who still believe in democracy, the clones, the surviving Jedi, and Saw Gerrera's partisans, a promise to fight to the death and beyond to bring down Palpatine and restore peace.
It will be a hard fight, Padme knows, but it will be worth it. All of this will be worth it eventually.
And when it's all over, Palpatine will be dead, and they'll be free. She will be free to have the family she has always wanted. She'll be free to live with Anakin and the twins, and they'll be happy.
Please. Please let it be so.
**w**
The columns of smoke rising from Tantiss are enough of an indication that something is very wrong. The lack of a response from the base is even more proof. Hemlock watches through the viewport as the shuttle lands in the hangar bay. The troopers who accompanied him surround him, and the commando moves out first, weapon held at the ready.
He needn't have bothered. Whoever came here and destroyed Tantiss is already gone. Hemlock can see the dying embers of the fires that must have one raged. The fight is over… and the Emperor will be most displeased.
"Spread out," he orders. "Search for survivors and report back with what you find."
One of the troopers remains with him just in case and the rest go to find out what has happened. There are very few survivors, and all are injured in one way or another. Their stories vary, but Hemlock is still able to piece together what transpired. It was a group of rebels – primarily composed of clones – who came here and decimated the facility along with a few rogue Jedi. They took all the prisoners and destroyed all the research.
Even Emerie left him.
His fury simmers as he walks through the halls of the demolished structure, stepping over and around debris as he goes to the section where the Clone X program was run. Though he has no more Clone Xs, he has one more prize which he hopes the rebels were unable to find.
And sure enough, CC-2224 is still in the stasis tank. It's not obvious what it is, and the personnel who oversaw the program would never have cooperated with the rebels. He is fortunate that he did not put Emerie in charge of this operation. This research is still complete. The databases were kept separate from those in the main laboratory.
All is not lost.
He can put his focus onto making this final clone into the most dangerous Clone X to exist, and he can hunt down and destroy the rebels who did this. The Emperor will be pleased.
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